Submitted by Sean Williams on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 09:18
This year's Egyptological Colloquium, held in the British Museum's fantastic BP Lecture Theatre, was roundly applauded as a great success. No fewer than eighteen gifted minds took to the lectern, as a glut of opinions, theories, excavations and discoveries were explored to a large audience's enthralment. Some of the speeches were incredibly specialist; others not so. But what is certain is that the past week has seen some of the most compelling and intriguing axioms on one of Ancient Egypt's greatest pieces of iconography, the Book of the Dead. From colours to kingdoms, magic bricks to evil demons; the colloquium had it all in abundance. And Heritage Key is on hand to give you all the best of the event's ideas from the bleeding edge of Egyptology.
Highlighted Quote:
Studies on the Book of the Dead appear to be enjoying a modern renaissance, with its future looking as bright as ever.
Dr Richard Parkinson is one of the British Museum's most senior Egyptologists, assuming the title of Assistant Keeper of Ancient Pharaonic Culture at the London institution. Dr Parkinson is responsible for the care, collection and display of the museum's inscribed Egyptian artefacts. These include such famous items as the Papyrus of Ani and the Rosetta Stone - the redisplay of which Dr Parkinson was in charge in 2004. Dr Parkinson is also responsible for university liaison with the museum, and has worked on a great number of projects and papers since his move to the BM from Oxford University in 1991. Dr Parkinson's interests also wade into poetry of the Egyptian classic age (1940-1640 BC) - and he examines ancient manuscripts in terms of their sexuality, performance and cultural power. As well as qualifications on British shores, Dr Parkinson is also a visiting lecturer at the University of Koln and an honorary doctor at Sofia's New Bulgarian University.
Submitted by Sean Williams on Thu, 07/30/2009 - 10:28
The Egyptological Colloquium 2009, held on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, saw a glut of eager experts propose dozens of theories on the making, scribing and significance of the Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. Some were more in-depth than others; some were downright inaccessible to all but the longest-serving Egyptologists.
Bridget Leach is the British Museum's Papyrus Conservator, and has been working at London's biggest museum for almost two decades. Her tasks involve checking and conserving papyri for display and exhibition, which has before included cleaning away shoddy Victorian 'restorations' which have obscured an item beyond recognition. Bridget has always been involved with papyrus in her career, and has helped preserve various items for institutions such as London's Petrie Museum, Dublin's Chester Beatty Library and Queen's College Oxford. She is also an expert in the use of colours and pigments in the production of papyri, and has conducted several lectures on the Egyptian use of realgar and orpiment.
Bridget has assisted with a number of excavation projects, including the Cambridge Theban Mission at Luxor and the Egypt Exploration Society's Qusur Ibrim mission in Aswan. Further work in the field has taken her to Dra Abu el Naga with the Spanish-Egyptian mission. Former BM work has seen Bridget team up with Dr Richard Parkinson on 2005's Ramesside Papyri Project. Bridget is currently working on a mission to perfect the digital unrolling of papyrus, and is an accredited member of the Institute of Conservation. 2006 also saw Bridget appointed External Assessor of the Post-grad Diploma and MA Paper Conservation Courses at Camberwell's University of the Arts.
